I will be chauffeuring kids to a concert in Poughkeepsie. Rather than driving home I thought I would look for a restaurant/mall/whatever in the area. Thanks for your help. Concert is a Saturday night.

The Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall is located on Route 9 which is the main drag that also has numerous strip malls, chain restaurants and movie theaters.

This may sound strange but the campus of Vassar college is worth seeing. My husband went to college there[yes, it is coed now] and I never get tired of visiting it with him.

If you feel like treating yourself to a nice dinner, you could head north to the Culinary Institute, about 10 minutes north of downtown Pok. You might want to make a reservation, though.

If you're heading to the Galleria, the Tuscan Bar & Grill is your best bet for a sit-down dinner, upper level by Filene's. There's also a decent Tex-Mex place that I can't remember the name of right now, on the lower level, on the Filene's end.

Across Route 9 is Osho, a Japanese hibachi restaurant, with a sushi bar. Might be a little tricky getting to it from southbound Rt. 9.

Yes... the campus of Vassar is indeed a great place to visit and wander around (I spent several hazy years there as an undergrad - class of '79). The architecture and the landscaping are quite unique - I spent four years workign at Cornell in the 1990's, which is justifiably reknowned for its beautiful campus but I still find Vassar to be more appealing. Very good art museum there as well. There are a few small cafes and a coffeehouse on and around Raymond Ave in the Arlington neighborhood where the campus is located. if I recall correctly there may also be a few restaurants worth exploring somewhere down near the waterfront - more or less in between the train station and the Marist campus. Skip downtown Poughkeepsie - the city struggle for years to get people there and those efforts have fallen short - it's a very depressed area.

Glad somebody agrees about Vassar. I just can't get over how beautiful it is and how lucky my husband was to attend[class of '87].